Minecraft - New Development Ideas

I'm an avid minecraft player. However, I think the game has a huge amount of untapped potential, which perhaps (I hope) the developers will begin to take advantage of. For starters, lets summarize what the game currently has to offer, and then talk about what these offerings can do for game mechanics.

Minecraft is a game which creates a huge (semi-infinite) procedurally generated world, separated into biomes with unique resources, textures and landscape features. There are evil monsters that come out at night to hunt for you, and there are passive creatures which you can enlist for aid, or farm for resources that come out at day. The terrain has spectacular features, rendered in a charming blocky style. There are etherial dimensions with fabulous vistas and dangerous creatures, and scattered throughout the world are hidden portals to these dimensions.

Alone in this world, you must start with your bare hands, survive the dangers at night, and eventually carve out a strong-hold for yourself. You're given nothing, and, with some strategy, you can craft special items with gathered, rare resources to build yourself a fortress from the elements, powerful tools to reshape the world around you, defend yourself from enemies, and grow crops of food. With enough effort, you can even craft complicated rail-way networks, machines, and various mechanical structures from basic elements such as moving pistons, electrical circuits.

The game as an amazing lego set, filled with dynamic pieces and huge opportunities for story, quests and adventures. What if Notch were to include factions offering competing quests, with rare-resource rewards? What if the tedium of mining for resources could be replaced or supplemented with questing for resources? What if the game could contain several sub-plots of story, interweaving, and taking the player from one fantastic location to the next, allowing the player the freedom to stop, build bases, and connect to an existing transportation network? I think this could allow for a richness of content as of yet unheard of.

What if, players could create a 'quest engine' and NPC or player civilizations with stories, plots, etc, that were uploaded to a central sever, and downloaded by other players for free, dynamic, and ever varying content? I think that minecraft is on the precipice of emergent, user generated gameplay. With this set of tools, and a relatively simple interface, users could create templates for buildings, templates for quests, etc, and get so much more from the game.

The current state of the game is a gigantic world to explore, reshape, but no real motivation to do so. The problem is that there could be story which motivates the game play, which could even allow the player time and space to pause in the story, and be creative, and alternatively, take advantage of a vast fantasy world full of quests and adventures. The game literally has nothing to lose by implementing this sort of play-style, and a huge player base to gain.

Just some thought. Maybe I'll write some tools some day that allow for this kind of content creation.

Just think of it:
1. NPC villages care how you interact with them, and which other villages you form ties with
2. Questing and rewards centered around exploring new content - finding hidden treasures and rare items
3. Trade networks between NPC villages
4. Storylines unique to villages
5. Larger city-state villages

Minecraft seems to be at 'critical mass' regarding possessing all the pieces needed to produce endless quests, heroic journeys to far off dimensions to conquer great evils, find powerful relics, ally with cities, you name it!

Millions of Starving People

Anyone else notice that "starving children in africa" is used in an almost casual, even joking sense when talking about stuff? As it turns out, people are actually starving right now, in what is probably the worst humanitarian crisis in the world currently. Yet, for some reason, the only place I find it is Reddit news...

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/09/millions-are-starving-horn-africa

We we all just anesthetized as kids with the 'save the children' infomercials? I was reading this article this morning, and just thinking about how some crises get more attention than others - it blows my mind how many things happen simultaneously on earth, and the sum of the world's problems seems insurmountable. I guess I understand why some people roll up into a ball, or ignore it. I wish there was some way to effectively help, but the most effective thing I can think of is donating money - and I have a pitiable amount of that.

Reminds me a bit of how Chris might have been feeling in his earlier post this week.

I don't want to try and determine some currency by which world disasters can be weighted - I find that to be annoying and pretentious, but seriously - why doesn't this kind of story get equal coverage in the media? I mean, this may veer off onto a whole different topic, but when media outlets recieve money from advertisments, are there any guarantees of fair, equal coverage to world events?

I get this feeling in the gut of my stomach, that is the integration of hearing about this sort of crisis over and over again, and finally, understanding somewhat the magnitude of the crisis. When I feel this way, somehow my philosophical unrest of any given moment seems pretty selfish compared to what my fellow human beings are forced to endure. Its a feeling of impotence mixed with loathing.

It seems unfair that I can devote my life to something abstract like particle physics, while others have to devote their lives to making continuous sacrifices to get even their most basic needs met..

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/09/01/general-af-ivory-coast-un-wikileaks_8654181.html

I mead, god damn it, reality check people, we should all probably stop jacking ourselves off about all our problems, about how much jesus and god loves us, or how we're such enlightened secular humanists that see through all the bullshit and focus on what matters - each other.

I guess that is a bit of an un-focused rant. But, then again, I've just come off listening to atheist pod-casts for the last two days and BBC news about Tripoli and Qaddafi, and felt kind of pissed that these other stories aren't covered. There is a lot of fucked up shit happening in Africa right now, and we should all care about it. Its our long-lost home-land, after all.

[EDIT]

It turns out, Somalia, like many African countries (not all, thankfully) is not impoverished due to a lack of food. Journalists who have traveled in and around Somalia have noticed that in areas, there are flourishing crops, and large, fat herds of cattle. Why is there such a starvation crises, then? It turns out that Somalia is fractured, and divided between warlords. These men and their child-armies, conscripted very young and essentially brainwashed until adulthood, systematically work to utterly deprive other competitors of food, water, and medical treatment. Thus, if you happen to live in a less powerful, or unprotected village, you are certain to be utterly fucked. And, the infighting prevents anyone from receiving external aid. Aid workers attempting to enter are robbed systematically of their aid money and supplies, and turned back, at best. The situation is utterly fucked, and nothing short of a country wide unification and rebellion will save Somalia, aside from large-scale UN invasion. And why isn't there one already? Probably because Somalia is not of 'strategic interest' to the United States.

Found Great 40 Album Rock Torrent

To break in my new speakers, I am listening to 40 .flac albums I procured from the internets. Ongoing, I will talk about each album, in alphabetical order, with my insanely (or is it inanely?) witty and/or insightful one sentence reviews.

666 (The Apocolypse of John 13/18), Aphrodite's Child - Progressive Rock
"Weird as shit spoken word mixed with tripped out choruses and odd instrumentation, straight-ahead jams"
"Clanging pots and pans plus a sitar and an 'Ooooh' choir, backing recitations from Revelations"
"What the fuck did I just hear saxophones just play?"
"I can't stand this album."


A Farewell to Kings, Rush - Rock
"Flipping Sweet, driving bass, screaming high vocals, energy"


Ágætis byrjun, Sigur Ros - Alternative
"Throbbing heart-beat like atmosphere sound-sculpting fuzz"

Male Circumsicion

This stems from the recent BBC Newshour podcast I just finished listening to, which can be found at: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/newshour

episode: 5/27/2011, 2pm

Firstly, lets define what the foreskin, and circumcision is:

Male circumcision is the practice of removing a collection of tissues, the foreskin, from the penis at birth. Many people actually don't know what a foreskin actually is, so let me define it here before we start. A foreskin is a double layered fold of skin and mucosa surrounding the glans of the penis. The outer layer is primarily skin, the inner layer is a mixture of specialized mucosa, highly specialized erogeneous nerve endings. The functions of the forskin include creating a 'gliding mechanism' in sexual intercourse, as well as protection for the naturally sensitive glans, and regulation of the natural environement (moisture, oils, etc) around the glans. Circumcision removes the outer layer of skin, the inner mucosa tissues, many of the erogeneous nerver endings, the penis' inborn gliding mechanism, 

See the wikipedia page for a brief overview of ethical, social, relgious, and medical issues surrounding the act of cicumsicion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision.

There are movements in San Francisco and other cities in the United States to make cicumcision of male infants illegal. It does not make 'later-in-life' circumcisions illegal - one can still get one if they want it.

In short:

Religious Groups (Jews + Muslims, specifically mentioned in this podcast) don't like the idea of outlawing infant circumcision because they feel it is a form of censorship and an infringement on their rights to freedom of religious expression.

Anti-circumcision groups: the forskin of the penis is an important erogenous zone, and benefits males in terms of sexual function and also in overall genital health.

Personally, I feel that circumcision is somewhat barbaric, and certainly non-essential. Whatever health benefits might purportedly arise from cutting off your dick-skin could easily be achieved through good personal hygiene and using condoms while having sex. Certainly, getting circumcised and having unprotected sex with multiple partners is not going to prevent you from contracting STDs. Are men that are circumcised 'not whole'? Certainly not! But, can one honestly make the argument "Yes, I prefer my parents to remove parts of my body that they/society deem non-important without my consent"? Even if there are health benefits, it seems that most of the 'biggies' are directly related to sexual activity - something I doubt most infants take part in. Can one really make the argument that no-foreskin offers a better protective power than foreskin+condom, or circumcised+condom? My guess would be that condoms are the thing that prevents infection, above all other factors. Regardless, I like my foreskin, and see no reason why I should cut it off, and am thankful for my parents for not doing so. Here are some articles that go in-depth into medical considerations surrounding circumcision:

Study 1 - http://www.cirp.org/library/disease/HIV/vanhowe4/
This study is a meta-study, combining results from several other studies. They found that there was not a correlation between HIV-AIDS and circumcision.

Study 2 - http://tinyurl.com/3jefcbc (may or may not work)
This study comes a year after study 1, and includes study 1's results as a reference. Study 2 finds that there IS a correlation between reduced risk of HIV-AIDs and circumcision in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Study 3

And a study on cervical cancer vs human papeloma virus residing in foreskin: http://tinyurl.com/4x4fqgl
And its almost not worth linking to wikipedia, since I assume that's the first place everyone goes for information these days, but I thought the discussion on the article on circumcision was really thorough, 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision#cite_note-VanHoweHIVmeta-159

Osama Bin Laden

Well, I wasn't going to even talk about Osama biting the dust, but it seems like everyone is doing it, so I'll throw in my two cents. When I was a Sophomore in highschool, I came to school to find all televisions tuned to a news station. In each class I attended, the teacher asked if we should simply watch the events of 9/11 unfold, or if we should continue with the lesson plan as scheduled, to prove that we would not allow a terrorist attack to frighten us out of our routine, and as a sign of respect for those who lost their lives - that we would not let terrorists use their deaths to control what we think and do.

I think that day probably affected everyone to some degree - personally, I've always wondered how much of an effect it really had on me - New York was so far away, and those events just seemed like they were coming from another world - and shit, I was 16, and had lots of other teenage things on my mind.

Regardless of what I felt then, I think that the attack on 9/11 did have an effect on me - I felt that effect resonate when I visited the site of the WTC almost ten years after the attack to find that it was still deeply ingrained in the minds of New Yorkers, and other Americans who came to see the carnage - wrapped up in a new construction site, and pay homage to the dead, and try to achieve some sense of closure. Regarding 9/11, I am hesitant to talk about it, because I feel strongly that I should not co-opt the real tragedy of those who lost loved ones, however, I do feel a great deal of sympathy for those affected, and it that sense, it does effect me.

And now, I find that the perpetrator of these events has been killed, of all ways, in a gun-battle in a house. What am I supposed to feel? Relief? Elation? Anger? I don't know that killing him has changed anything. Does his death really provide closure? It does not bring back anyone who has been killed by his machinations. I've seen a whole host of reactions, and funny enough, I had a strong reaction to either side, there seems to be two camps - those who are happy bin Laden is dead, and those who feel its wrong to celebrate killing, period. It bothered me to see people celebrating his death, but it also really bothered me when people got up on soap-boxes and voiced their objections to people celebrating his death - it seems there is no winning side.

Bin Laden was more than a man - he had become a symbol of evil in the minds of many people, he lived free, exulting in his atrocious crime and the pain that he had caused Americans. His single action has affected the way that we travel, it has for better or for worse, left a very dark mark on everyone - think of how things were before 9/11, and how they are now. Is it so strange that people might be elated at his death? Do we even have the right to try an 'educate them' regarding the proper way to react? Conversely, why should we celebrate death -  doing so is at least morbid, and at worst, treading dangerously close to the idea that we have the right to kill who ever we deem evil.

I suppose that the death of one person is meaningless compared to the deaths of the thousands of people who perished in the WTC Towers. Part of me, the angry part, wants to see bin Laden put on trial for all of his sins, to see remorse flood his eyes when he realizes how much pain and suffering he inflicted, to see him relive the horrors that he inflicted and understand the meaning of his actions. The angry part of me feels like just blowing the guy away robs our 'right' to justice.

But, the logical side of me wonders if there is any way that resolution can happen involving bin Laden. What happened was so horrific, its almost too much to even want to deal with the man. Its as though his action severed him from being human in my mind - its inconceivable for me to imagine what I would have to become in order to do what he did - it was monstrous. How do you deal with a monster? A real monster - it just seems like the sort of thing where one's gut reaction is to just push it away, lock it in a cell where he will be forgotten.

Justice is an extremely slippery concept for me to grasp. I don't think its ever simple. I think that sometimes, a hurt is deep, and there isn't a single simple action that will make it go away. And, there isn't a way to return to how things were before - you just can't. You have to let go of what once was, and try to find some way of moving ahead, positively and resolutely, into the future.

Requisite First Post - About Me

I'm a positive person; I love, and desperately need socializing with good friends over delicious beer and food. I love creating in every sense of the word – I find that figuring out how things work, building or making something, rather than buying it, can be simultaneously extremely gratifying, and extremely frustrating. It’s probably due to that need to create and understand the world around me that I chose to study physics. I find the study thoroughly enriching, and it leaves plenty of room for my touchy-feely squishy emotional-ness to get satisfaction; though that in no way means that I insist on experiencing everything through the lens of physics. Currently, I actually do physics for a living and it is awesome - I am still getting used to the idea. I think that I would have been equally happy pursuing some other creative outlet, but that physics just ended up being the right thing at the right time in college.

One thing I notice about being in physics is that many people automatically think physicists are smart. I'd be lying if I denied enjoying the stereotype at times, but I should make a clear distinction, in that specific knowledge of a narrow field, and using obscure jargon, while fun to tout, does not make one wise, compassionate, or happy. I strive to be the latter – which I think is a much nobler pursuit than being ‘smart’.

In fact, I think that I enjoy talking about physics at a level that captures interest of people that don’t do physics, much more satisfying than actually doing physics research. I like sharing knowledge and experiences,  as much as enjoy learning about other people’s knowledge and experiences.

I hope to use this blog to learn more about myself, write about what I do at a level that is enjoyable to everyone, and talk about whatever interests me at the moment, which can vary wildly.